Social Media Tutorials 05: The Difference Between a FaceBook Profile and a FaceBook Page
Social media websites change all the time. So do their layouts and features. FaceBook is no exception. I’m sure as soon as I post this blog, FaceBook will roll out a new round of changes, so I will try to keep this blog generic so it will remain relevant longer into the future.
Today I want to discuss the difference between a Facebook Page and a FaceBook Profile. “Aren’t the terms interchangeable?” you ask. Well, yes, people interchange the terms all the time – usually when they are referring to a profile, but they are actually two different things with separate purposes.
As an author, artist, musician, or other creative person, it’s possible and often likely you have two portals on FaceBook. The first one would be your personal profile. This is what most people use. A profile is a personal page where you can “friend” your friends. They tend to be more personal and have more security options for limiting who can see content you post.
Then there are FaceBook Pages. Pages tend to be more professional. The easiest way to know if you are looking at a Profile or a Page is you can friend a Profile, but you can only “Like” a Page.
Why should you create a FaceBook Page for your business or professional persona when it’s easier to have everyone on your personal Profile?
Well, there are a number of reason. First of all, to create a professional environment, you want to filter out unprofessional personal posts and chatter that may hinder your appearance as a professional. While that is now possible to do with a FaceBook Profile, it is a lot easier to have your own professional FaceBook Page and only post relevant content on the Page. Then you can post anything you want on your personal Profile for your close friends without a strenuous filtering process.
Also, there is a limit to the number of friends you can connect with on a personal Profile. The new “Subscribe” button is a step towards turning a personal Profile into a professional page, because it essentially eliminates the issue of having a limited number of friends. Honestly, the friend limit shouldn’t be an issue on a Profile unless you are 1) famous or 2) using your personal profile for both personal and professional purposes. FaceBook Pages, however, have no limit. They don’t have friends, but followers. You can have as many followers on your FaceBook Page as you can convince to follow you. :)
The biggest reason you should use a FaceBook Profile for your professional activities is the analytics. FaceBook Pages come equipped with analytics tools which tell you how well each post is received. One a FaceBook Profile you have no idea how many people see your post unless they actually comment of like the post. With a Page, you are given charts showing you the number of people who actually saw the post and the number of viral hits the post got. (That’s friends of friends who saw the post because a person who liked your page commented or liked the post and one of their friends saw it.) Viral hits are the chocolate of the internet world. Everyone wants them, but they aren’t easy to acquire. Ideally, you would turn those viral hits into new “Likes” for your page and then their friends would be your new viral audience.
On a Page, you can also see demographics about who likes your page. You can see the age range and location of your audience. This can help you customize your posts to target the type of people who you want to interact with your Page.
Although it’s possible to use a FaceBook Profile as a professional page, I would recommend using a FaceBook Page for that because it really does have a lot more built-in tools designed for a professional environment that the Profile lacks.
Come back in two weeks for the next installment in my Social Media Tutorial Blog Series. If you have any particular social media topics, send me a message or leave me a comment here and I will try to get to them.
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